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Why Tim Cook Was Right to Bash Microsoft Corporation at Apple Inc's WWDC

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) released a smorgasbord of new information Monday during WWDC 2014, the company's annual developer conference. CEO Tim Cook made passing criticisms of competitors and hit the nail on the head with his comments on Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) .

WWDC focused on a wide range of Apple products, but the Microsoft slam came shortly into Cook's keynote address, which led to the Yosemite OS announcement due this fall. Yosemite was designed to appeal to a broader audience in an effort to snatch away market share from Windows PCs. And Cook made sure to mention Microsoft's recent OS problems.

While Windows 8 hasn't received a warm welcome, Microsoft still owns the largest share of the desktop market. According to Net Applications, Microsoft's Windows 7 held over half of the market in May compared to nearly 6.3% for Windows 8, and 6.35% for the freshly launched Windows 8.1 update.

The only Apple OS to make the Net Application list was Mavericks, which held over 4% of the market. So that suggests that Mac users did largely upgrade when the choice became available.

Source: Net Applications.

So Cook was right that Mac users took to Mavericks much faster than PC users took to Windows 8. But there are a couple of key differences.

Apple offered the Mavericks update for free to compatible systems, while Windows 8 upgrades started at about $100. And some users of older Mac systems were forced to upgrade when support was discontinued for the four-year-old Snow Leopard, which occurred around the same time as an important security update. Microsoft also retired an OS from support this year -- the 12-year-old Windows XP.

Why Tim Cook was right Windows 8 has a larger desktop market share than Mavericks. But a new update that featured a Start button, but not a widely desired Start menu, has already surpassed Windows 8. ZDNet reported Monday that the promised Start menu might not make it to PCs until next year. And Microsoft is thought to have cut Windows 8.1 licensing prices by 70% for low-end manufacturers simply to keep some degree of momentum behind the operating system.

Mavericks has the smaller market share, but unlike Windows 8 doesn't have enough egg on its face to make an omelet. And Yosemite OS X could attract more users to Macs due to the furthered iPhone integration. Windows 8 boasted a similar cross-platform nature, but sales of iPhones trounce sales of Windows Phones. According to Gartner, iOS devices held nearly 16% of the worldwide smartphone market in 2013. Microsoft's share came in a bit over 3%.

Foolish final thoughts Apple still lags behind Microsoft in desktop market share, but Microsoft has entered an odd era where innovation has been replaced with late-to-the-game reactions. Microsoft needs more improvement updates or Yosemite could take a bite out of its market.

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It's going to be great to see Microsoft crush Apple a second time! They did it the 90's and it's just starting to take shape now for the 20's. Investing is about long-term (although it did take Apple a long time to have some decent growth).

As all companies do Apple was simply playing with select numbers to make themselves look good.

Windows 8, considered a failure, still has a larger installed base than all Mac OSX versions combined. Windows Phone, also considered a failure by some, has the same mobile market share as Mac has desktop share.

But it is the mobile phone battle that is currently more important. That is where MSFT has done okay, but needs to do much better. With all of the new OEMs for Windows Phone bringing out phones all over the world this year I expect MSFT do outperform the current IDC predictions for mobile market share.

Its a mixed bag for sure. Macs cost more then comparable Windows computers but Mavericks and the new OS X 10.10 are FREE. I tried the developer preview and its nice. Apple has great customer service and the fact that OS X rarely gets malware or the problems associated with Windows or Android are a huge plus.

Windows 8 is a mess. Useable but a mess but with tweaks from third party software can work okay. The fact that the newest OS X updates are free is a big thing. I run OS X 10.10 on a seven year old Macbook Pro but too be fair I also run Windows 8 on a seven year old Lenovo Thinkpad.

MSFT has itself to blame for people buying Macbooks after the W8 debacle. Personally I like Linux over both of these.

Apple has 4.15% of the market and Cook has the balls to slam Microsoft. Adoption rate means very little in this scenario. Actually it has a somewhat negative for Apple, meaning at least half of Mac users are tired of, or not happy with the older OSX versions, while Windows users are happy with older versions. Also, aren't OSX upgrades free, so why not upgrade as long as your system can handle it. New Windows OSs can be expensive, so many don't want to, or can't afford to spend the money. Also, many older PCs aren't capable of upgrading, and many users are content with their new toys (Smartphones and tablets).

For Microsoft, it's damned if you do, damned if you don't! Anyone who thought the huge transition from PC to mobile computing was going to be a slam dunk on the first iteration is quite frankly a fool.

Just about every other iteration of Windows has been ruled a success. I be surprised of Windows 9 doesn't have phenomenal success.

It's funny how everyone thinks it's going to be a tablet or a laptop, it'll likely be a tablet and a laptop and an Xbox in every home when it's all said and does. They've been saying it since the beginning of the transition, Windows everywhere!